| Source | Year | Position |
|---|---|---|
| SumOfUs | 2016 | Use with care |
| American Psychological Association | 2023 | Avoid |
| Diversity Style Guide | 2023 | Avoid |
| Trans Journalists Association | 2026 | Avoid |
“transvestite (unless this is how the person self-identifies)”
SumOfUs lists "transvestite" among forms to use only when a person self-identifies that way, alongside "transsexual" and other terms governed by the same self-identification caveat.
“TERM TO AVOID … SUGGESTED ALTERNATIVE … transvestite … transgender people”
APA places "transvestite" in the term-to-avoid column of its inclusive-language table and pairs it with "transgender people" as the suggested alternative.
“Avoid this outdated term.”
The Diversity Style Guide's glossary entry for "transvestite" directs writers away from the term; its separate "cross-dresser" entry names cross-dresser as the form that replaces it, and its alternatives elsewhere point to "transgender."
“A medical term coined in the early 1900s to describe patients who dressed as another gender. Now widely considered offensive. See crossdresser…”
The Trans Journalists Association describes "transvestite" as an early-1900s medical coinage now widely considered offensive, and points writers to "cross-dresser."
All four sources recommend avoiding “transvestite.” APA, the Diversity Style Guide, and the Trans Journalists Association place it in their avoid columns or glossary “avoid” entries, and SumOfUs lists it among terms to use only when a person self-identifies that way.
What to use instead depends on the word’s two senses. For the gender-identity sense, the replacement is “transgender”: APA pairs “transvestite” with “transgender people,” and DSG points the same direction. For the clothing-not-identity sense, dressing in clothing associated with another gender without a claim about identity, both DSG and TJA redirect to “cross-dresser” (DSG’s cross-dresser entry says it “Replaces the term transvestite”). A communicator picking a substitute should first decide which sense is meant.
All four leave an exception for self-identification and historical quotation. SumOfUs and TJA carve it out explicitly: keep the word when quoting historical material or when a person or community self-describes that way. In practice, don’t apply “transvestite” to anyone who hasn’t claimed it.
TJA dates “transvestite” to an early-1900s clinical coinage for “patients who dressed as another gender.” By the 2010s and 2020s, the style guides in this commons advise avoiding it in favor of “transgender” (for identity) and “cross-dresser” (for the clothing sense), while preserving a place for the original word in historical quotation and self-description.